Editing Palermo (section)

== History ==
Palermo was founded by Phoenician traders during the eighth century BC. It later came under Carthaginian control and developed as a harbour on the northern Sicilian coast. Roman forces captured the city in 254 BC during the First Punic War. Under Roman rule it was known as ''Panormus''. After the end of western Roman authority, Palermo passed to the Ostrogothic Kingdom and was recovered by the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century.

Muslim forces captured Palermo in 831. The city became the capital of the Emirate of Sicily and expanded beyond its earlier boundaries. Its port supported trade between Sicily, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. Norman forces captured Palermo in 1072, and Roger II established the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] in 1130 with the city as its capital.<ref name="sicily-history"/> The Norman court retained administrators and craftsmen from the preceding government. Byzantine mosaic work continued in royal buildings, while western forms were introduced into new churches and palaces.

Palermo remained a royal centre under the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Following the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, the island separated politically from the mainland kingdom centred on [[Naples]]. Sicily later came under the Crown of Aragon and remained under Spanish government for several centuries. Savoyard and Austrian control followed briefly before the Bourbon dynasty took the island in 1735.

The Kingdom of Sicily was united with the [[Kingdom of Naples]] in 1816 to form the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]].<ref name="two-sicilies-history"/> Palermo became the centre of the Sicilian revolution of January 1848. A revolutionary government governed the island from the city until Bourbon forces restored control in 1849. [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] entered Palermo during his Sicilian campaign in May 1860. Sicily was incorporated into the [[Kingdom of Italy]] in 1861.<ref name="sicily-history"/>

Palermo was bombed repeatedly during the [[Second World War]] because of its harbour and transport facilities. Allied forces invaded Sicily on 10 July 1943 and entered Palermo later that month.<ref name="second-world-war-mediterranean"/> Sicily received autonomous status in 1946, after which the regional assembly and government were established in the city.<ref name="sicily-history"/>

During the late twentieth century, Cosa Nostra exercised influence over construction contracts and local politics in Palermo. The murders of magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992 led to large public demonstrations in the city and increased national action against the organization.